ServiceNow二季度AI ACV超10亿美元并上调2026订阅收入中值至157.70亿美元

Earnings Call Insights: ServiceNow (NOW) Q2 2026
Management View
- "Subscription revenue growth was 23% in constant currency" and "Operating margin was 29.5%, 3 points above our guidance," said Chairman & CEO William McDermott.
- "ServiceNow AI ACV exceeded expectations again, surpassing $1 billion, keeping us on track to beat our target of $1.5 billion ACV by the end of 2026," Chairman & CEO William McDermott said.
- "We have a big announcement coming very shortly, a business model evolution that expands our TAM with AI-native products," Chairman & CEO William McDermott said, adding, "This new offering will be a conversational service desk experience, no tickets and AI-coded automation."
- "Q2 subscription revenues were $3.877 billion" and "RPO ended the quarter at approximately $29 billion," said President & CFO Gina Mastantuono.
- "Our renewal rate was a best-in-class 98% in Q2," President & CFO Gina Mastantuono said.
Outlook
- "For 2026, we're raising our subscription revenues by $15 million at the midpoint from $15.755 billion to $15.770 billion," President & CFO Gina Mastantuono said.
- "We expect subscription gross margin of 81%," "We expect operating margin of 31.5% and free cash flow margin of 35%," and "GAAP diluted weighted average outstanding shares of 1.04 billion," President & CFO Gina Mastantuono said.
- "For Q3, we expect subscription revenues between $3.975 billion and $3.980 billion" and "We expect cRPO growth of 20% on a constant currency basis," President & CFO Gina Mastantuono said.
- On quarter-to-quarter setup, President & CFO Mastantuono said, "Part of that outperformance was due to strong U.S. federal demand, which shifted some on-prem revenue from Q3 to Q2. This is simply about timing. I'm very confident in our Q3 and full year guide."
Financial Results
- "Q2 subscription revenues were $3.877 billion" and "Current RPO was $13.2 billion," President & CFO Gina Mastantuono said.
- "ServiceNow AI continued to outperform expectations in Q2 with ACV crossing over $1 billion and net new ACV growth accelerating sequentially, growing over 40% quarter-over-quarter," President & CFO Gina Mastantuono said.
- "Non-GAAP operating margin was 29.5%," and "Our free cash flow margin was 16%," President & CFO Gina Mastantuono said.
- On mix and margin drivers, President & CFO Mastantuono said, "We expect subscription gross margin of 81%, reflecting more customers utilizing our hyperscaler partnerships as well as accelerating AI adoption."
Q&A
- Gabriela Borges, Goldman Sachs: asked for reflections on the "Level 1 ITSM product cycle" and monetization; President, Chief Product Officer & COO Amit Zavery said "our 40-plus customers are using it already" and "We're talking about closing down close to 80% to 85% of the service requests without having any human interaction," while President & CFO Gina Mastantuono added, "We crossed $1 billion in AI ACV in the quarter" and said the company is "already tracking ahead of our target for AI to reach 30% of ACV in 2030."
- Michael Turrin, Wells Fargo: asked whether U.S. federal strength is a leading indicator and how it affects Q3 guidance; President & CFO Mastantuono said, "Fed business is strong" and "As we move into Q3, pipe looks good," while Chairman & CEO McDermott said, "Cybersecurity is going to be a massive tailwind for ServiceNow."
- Tal Liani, BofA Securities: asked about AI pricing and competitive pressure; President Zavery said, "Hybrid pricing structure" provides "predictability and flexibility," and President & CFO Mastantuono said, "Our pricing uplift for our Pro Plus SKUs continues to be above 30%" and "for our new AI native SKUs... 20% to 30%."
- Samik Chatterjee, JPMorgan: asked what is driving AI upside (new logos vs upsell); President & CFO Mastantuono said "deal volume among first-time ServiceNow Agentic AI buyers growing over 45% year-over-year" and "uplift in pricing of 20% to 30%," while President Zavery said, "the use cases across the AI is just expanding quite a lot."
- Tyler Radke, Citi: asked why the full-year subscription revenue raise was "relatively modest" vs Q2; President & CFO Mastantuono said, "about half of the beat is a pull forward of on-prem for a quarter" and added, "I'm always looking... at a conservative prudent guide."
- Matthew Hedberg, RBC: asked about potential deal cycle elongation; Chairman & CEO McDermott said, "I think what you should take away from this is" contract terms "are actually elongating" and "I have not seen any change" in sales cycle pressure, calling out that "Mythos was a gift to the ServiceNow company" in driving security urgency.
- Samad Samana, Jefferies: asked about sales and marketing headcount growth; President & CFO Mastantuono said, "So it's all three" ("M&A," "hiring ahead," and sales investment) and Chairman & CEO McDermott said, "We will complete this cycle of 2026 and start 2027 with the exact same headcount before we did the acquisitions."
- Brad Zelnick, Deutsche Bank: asked about gross margin tension from hyperscaler/AI consumption; President & CFO Mastantuono said there is "a little bit of short-term pressure" but "midterm, there will be less pressure," while President Zavery added, "the large language models are getting commoditized" and the company is "very smart" about model selection.
- Keith Bachman, BMO: asked about cyber strategy boundaries and observability; Chairman & CEO McDermott said, "We're building the world's most integrated end-to-end security platform," and President Zavery said, "we launched our AIOps Specialist" and "we're not trying to build this observability outside, it's really part of ITOM."
- Gregg Moskowitz, Mizuho: asked whether hardware/AI spend is crowding out other IT spend; Chairman & CEO McDermott said, "I have not" seen an impact and added, "If I've seen any change, it's on the positive."
- Adam Wood, Morgan Stanley: asked about ServiceNow’s "right to win" with AI Control Tower; President Zavery said "We have more than 500-plus customers already live using AI Control Tower in the first 6 months," and Chairman & CEO McDermott said the opportunity is enterprise-wide across processes like "order to cash" and "procure to pay."
Sentiment Analysis
- Analysts: slightly negative to neutral pressure, centered on guide conservatism and mechanics, including "the relatively modest full year subscription revenue raise" (Tyler Radke, Citi) and margin/consumption questions (Brad Zelnick, Deutsche Bank).
- Management: positive and confident in prepared remarks and Q&A, using emphatic language such as "We are who we said we were" (Chairman & CEO William McDermott) and "I'm very confident in our Q3 and full year guide" (President & CFO Gina Mastantuono).
- Versus last quarter: the Q2 call kept the AI Control Tower framing, but added sharper emphasis on cybersecurity scale (including Armis and Veza integration) and introduced "a business model evolution" tied to AI-native, product-led motion.
Quarter-over-Quarter Comparison
- Guidance approach shifted from Q1’s acquisition-driven lift (Armis contribution highlighted in Q1) to a smaller midpoint raise in Q2; President & CFO Mastantuono said the Q2 outperformance included "a pull forward of on-prem for a quarter" and emphasized a "conservative prudent guide."
- Q2 commentary broadened from Q1’s AI packaging/pricing transition to deeper operating proof points, including "500-plus customers already live using AI Control Tower" (President Zavery) and "a big announcement... a business model evolution" (Chairman & CEO McDermott).
- Analyst focus moved from Q1 concerns about acquisition contribution and organic acceleration (e.g., Q1 questions on inorganic clarity) to Q2 mechanics of guidance flow-through, AI monetization specifics, and gross margin implications of hyperscaler/consumption mix.
Risks and Concerns
- On quarterly phasing risk, President & CFO Mastantuono said, "strong U.S. federal demand... shifted some on-prem revenue from Q3 to Q2" and characterized it as "timing."
- On margin sensitivity, President & CFO Mastantuono cited "more customers utilizing our hyperscaler partnerships" and "accelerating AI adoption" as drivers of lower gross margin guidance, while stating longer-term improvement expectations.
- On competitive and pricing scrutiny, President Zavery said the company will keep pricing "very customer-friendly" with "predictability and flexibility," while emphasizing that ServiceNow’s "context" remains differentiated.
Final Takeaway
Management described Q2 as a broad-based execution quarter with subscription revenue, cRPO, and operating margin ahead of guidance, while reaffirming a raised 2026 subscription revenue midpoint of $15.770 billion and positioning AI Control Tower, agentic AI adoption, and an expanding security portfolio (including Armis and Veza) as key drivers. Management also flagged an imminent "business model evolution" to expand TAM with AI-native, product-led offerings, while maintaining a cautious stance on guidance flow-through due to timing dynamics and near-term gross margin pressure tied to hyperscaler usage and AI consumption mix.
Read the full Earnings Call Transcript